EURO 2012 with Football Manager Blog

So EURO 2012 is coming soon and we just want to announce that Football Manager Blog will be making a series of posts regarding the upcoming event. We'll be making a dedicated posts about all countries that will compete for the prestige title of the European champions. Lots of graphics, tactics and guides will be available for you to download.

Until then, here are few fun facts that you may or may not already known about the EURO 2012 in Poland and Ukraine.

Ireland will be the only team that doesn’t have any players coming from its own domestic league, whilst England will be the only team which only has got players coming from its own domestic league.

Robbie Keane who plays in LA Galaxy, MLS along with Christian Wilhelmsson from Al-Hilal, Saudi Pro League will be the only two players that play outside Europe.

The oldest player in the competition will be Kostas Chalkias who is 38 years old, and the youngest will be Jetro Willems 18 years of age.

Kostas Chalkias (38) ~ Jetro Willems (18)

There's three coaches that aren't from the country they're coaching: Fernando Santos who is Portuguese will be coaching Greece, Dick Advocaat who is Dutch will be coaching Russia and Giovanni Trapattoni who is Italian and will be coaching Ireland in this tournament.

Poland, who is one of the hosts for this tournament is actually the lowest ranked FIFA team at 65th place, whilst Spain is the highest ranked, occupying position number 1.

Spain will also have the highest capped player among them Iker Cassilas, who's got 129 caps for his national team, while Germany will have the most the player who scored most goals for his national team, Miroslav Klose with 69 goals.

Official mascots for this tournament are called Slavek and Slavko and the official ball is Adidas Tango 12.

Slavek and Slavko with the official ball for EURO 2012 ~ Adidas Tango 12

Ukraine will compete for the first time on the big scene of European Championship.

After the competitions is over, Croatian boss Slaven Bilic will take charge of Lokomotiv Moscow.

Coach who has the longest run with his national team is Morten Olsen from Denmark, who's been coaching his national team ever since year 2000.

The oldest coach on the tournament will be Giovanni Trapattoni with 72 years on his back, while the youngest coach is Paulo Bento, who is 42 years old.

Manchester City is the club who will have the most players heading to EURO 2012, exactly 18 players.

This will be the last EURO that has 16 competitors in the final part of the tournament, starting from 2016 in France, there will be 24 teams in the final part.

Do you still remember Vuvuzela from the last World Cup? Well here is her successor, the Zozulica.

The slogan of the tournament is “Creating History Together”.

If Spain wins the tournament, they will become first country who has won two consecutive wins on EURO and World Cup between the competitions.

For the first time in the history the European Football Tournament will be held in the Eastern Europe.

In total there have been 59 players ruled out of the tournament with an injury. The most in European Championship history.

The estimated value of the Cup made from pure silver is worth €20.000. Its height – 60 cm, weight – 8 kg.

Every team in the tournament will receive 8 million euros. 1 million euros will be given for a win in the group stage. 500,000 euros for a draw in the group stage. 2 million euros for a win in the quarter-finals. A semi-final victory will be worth 3 million euros . In the final, the winning team will be awarded 7.5 million euros and the runner-up will receive 4.5 million euros. UEFA will also give 1 million euros to the team finishing third in the group.

So these are just some of the fun facts of this years EURO 2012, if you can think of any other write it down in the comments below. And remember to follow us in the next few days so you can stay updated with our latest graphics, posts, downloads, guides and more.